Twitter recently added the ability for all users to create their custom “Moments” feed. I took the opportunity to test Twitter Moments to create a list of rapid-fire fintech updates from many of the top vendors and service providers in the industry.

On today’s broadcast, a group of NexGen financial planners reveal their top technology apps. Are you using any of these popular tools in your business? A startup named Quovo aims to streamline account aggregation. Will they be able to solve frustrations with managing held-away accounts? And, this month’s Journal of Financial Planning is packed with great content. Find out which contributions can help you boost your firm’s technology.

Today’s episode is brought to you by the 2014 T3 Enterprise Conference, exclusively designed for the technology needs of broker-dealers and financial enterprises.

If you’re looking for the best place to monitor trends in broker-dealer technology, you need to come to Atlanta November 11th through 13th. Reserve your spot today by visiting t3enterpriseconference.com

[This week’s top story comes from Bob Veres, the savant of the financial planning profession, who provided an introspection of the FPA NexGen gathering he recently attended in Moline, IL. FPA NexGen is a community of over 2,000 FPA members age 36 and under, representing the future of the industry as they succeed today’s advisors who are entering retirement.

While Veres presents several thought-provoking discussions from the event, you’ll find his recap of technology tools and apps mentioned at the NexGen gathering to be of particular interest. Some of the top apps include ScheduleOnce, and online calendar clients can use to automatically book meetings, Evernote, an omnipresent note-taking app, Pay Simple, an online billing and payment service, and many more.] I recently served as a facilitator for the annual NexGen conference, this year held on the campus of Augustana University in Moline, IL., … [where] I was able to gain insight into the very different way that the financial planning landscape looks through the eyes of younger advisors just starting their careers — and in many cases, from the bottom end of a planning firm’s organizational chart.

[Next up is a column from technology consultant Joel Bruckenstein. In his latest update for Financial Advisor magazine, Bruckenstein highlights a start up in the account aggregation space called Quovo.

For the longest time, reconciliation-ready account aggregation was available from just a handful of providers. First is ByAllAccounts, which was just purchased by Morningstar back in April for $28 million, then CashEdge, which was acquired by Fiserv for $465 million in 2011, and Aqumulate, formerly known as Advisor Exchange.

New to the scene is Quovo, which claims to aggregate data from over 18,000 financial institutions to provide detailed performance reports, asset allocation reviews, and even simulated market stress testing. Bruckenstein wrote that “Quovo has great potential in the advisory space,” so it’s worth adding the company to your technology radar, especially if you’re looking to improve your ability to work with clients’ held-away accounts.] In the wake of Morningstar’s recent purchase of ByAllAccounts, this seems like a particularly good time to take a look at a firm called Quovo.

[And finally, the July 2014 edition of the Journal of Financial Planning is now available, and it’s a very good one with respect to technology. You’ll definitely want to check out the cover story that features two case studies on how to effectively market a financial planning business, then read a column from past FPA President Dan Moisand on why robo-advisors are a problem for the profession, and also read my own contribution on the seven most important tips you need to follow to enhance the videos you upload online.

You need to be an FPA member to access the digital edition of the magazine, but I think it’s worth it given the value you’ll receive from the Journal as well as the other member benefits offered by the FPA.] Marketing experts Kristen Luke and Kristin Harad, CFP®, offer specific marketing tactics for two very different advisory firms—one new, eager to start marketing, but not sure how; and one established, wishing to better attract high net worth clients.

MoneyGuidePro®, a leader in goal-focused financial planning, and Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced greatly enhanced integration between MoneyGuidePro and Morningstar OfficeSM, the practice and portfolio management system for independent financial advisors.

Eight months after announcing the launch of a cloud-based customer relationship management product for advisers, ProTracker Software Inc. has stopped selling its ProTracker Cloud CRM while the company fixes some kinks in the product.

Social CRM for financial advisers ushers in a new paradigm in managing client relationships

Your day begins with quick glance at your mobile device. Open an app and you see that six of your clients are traveling for business, two of them overseas. Another client just revealed that her daughter’s volleyball team won a regional championship.

At first it sounds like you’re checking your Facebook feed. Or perhaps you’re swiping through lists on Twitter.

But in fact, you’re checking your social CRM.

Social CRM for Financial Advisers

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more attract billions of users month after month by aggregating updates from your professional, personal, and social connections.

So why not build the same functionality into CRM software, the technology advisers use the most day after day?

Wealthbox CRM

One startup doing so is New York City-based Gotham Tech Labs with the introduction of Wealthbox CRM.

I reviewed the final beta version of Wealthbox CRM prior to its general release announced at this week’s 2014 T3 Conference and provided my impressions in this month’s Morningstar Advisor column.

On today’s broadcast, have robo advisers finally cracked the code to asset gathering? A leading document management provider rolls out mobile and social features your business soon can’t live without, and who are the top industry bloggers all financial advisors should be reading? All this and more.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Blu Giant Advisor Studios, a multi-disciplinary creative firm, empowering advisors to engage clients though branding, social media, video and the web; an experience called “hypermedia.”

Experience Blu Giant’s new interactive website and see what’s possible for your business by visiting fppad.com/blugiant

[This week’s top story comes from the world of online advice providers, aka “robo advisors,” as Wealthfront announced this week that the company surpassed $500 million dollars in assets under management. While topping $500 million in AUM might seem like celebrating another 1,000 point threshold in the Dow Jones index, Wealthfront is starting to increase the gap over similar competitors like Betterment, which manages a reported $360 million, and Personal Capital, weighing in at a little over $200 million.

Wealthfront claimed over $67 million dollars in new assets for the month of December, which for many RIAs would make up a great year in new assets under management. Still, Wealthfront may not be a profitable business just yet, as Nerd’s Eye View blogger Michael Kitces estimated an optimistic annualized revenue of $1-and-a-quarter million dollars generated to support a team of expensive, full-time software engineers.

But pay careful attention to the types of clients Wealthfront cites in its announcement. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more make up the top ten list of Silicon Valley companies with the most employees that are Wealthfront clients. This group IS next generation of clients for your business, so if you’re interested in attracting them, your technology needs to be up to par, but you must offer something that robo advisors completely lack; a real relationship with a trusted advisor.] Although we began the year with less than $100 million in assets under management, we closed 2013 with over $538 million, growing over 450% to become the largest and fastest-growing software-based financial advisor.

[Next up is news from Laserfiche, one of the leading providers of document and electronic content management to financial advisors. Laserfiche held its annual Empower conference for users and resellers in Southern California this week, selling out for the first time in the event’s history.

Laserfiche announced a number of updates, including a complete redesign of its web-based interface called Laserfiche Web Access 10. Users will find the fresh interface easier to navigate and much more user-friendly on tablets and smart phones. And speaking of smartphones, Laserfiche also introduced a brand new app for Android, adding more support for mobile devices since the introduction of the app for iOS back in 2011.

Finally, an interesting development for financial advisors is the addition of new feature in Laserfiche Forms 9.1. Laserfiche posted a form online that anyone could fill out to post a message on Twitter. But before each tweet went global, the message was automatically routed through an approval process built in to Laserfiche.

Tie that in with Laserfiche’s archiving capabilities, and you have a pretty elegant solution anyone in your business can use to stay compliant on social media and also avoid those embarrassing drunk tweets.] Laserfiche today kicked off its sold-out Empower 2014 Conference with a keynote speech from company CTO Karl Chan outlining new and upcoming software releases. The new lineup includes social BPM, expanded mobile offerings and new web products.

[And finally, many of you ask where I get my news and information to produce each episode of FPPad Bits and Bytes. Well several of my favorite sources were just listed among the top 10 industry blogs for financial advisors.

This week, RIABiz published its list of the best industry blogs, and what’s wrong with a little shameless self-promotion since FPPad.com was listed as number three!

So let me thank you for helping make FPPad a part of the top industry blogs, because without your questions, feedback, and loyal viewership, FPPad would not be the resource that it is today.] The RIA business is a land of micro-niches where owner-operated blogs are often the best reading spot for advisors to find the vibe and the level of granularity they seek on a subject

Google Analytics Doesn’t Show Website Mentions on Twitter

Google Analytics is the go-to utility to monitor activity that occurs on your website.

While Google Analytics does track incoming referral traffic from Twitter, it doesn’t have the ability to identify how many times your website is listed in tweets on Twitter.

Now Twitter Analytics allows you to link to your website to the dashboard and give you more detailed statistics to track.

Find Out Who Tweets Your Website

Not only does the Twitter Analytics dashboard show how many times you listed your website in your own tweets, but it also shows how many times your website was mentioned by other people on Twitter. That is one great feature of this new integration.

So watch the walk-through video and begin tracking how many times your website is mentioned on Twitter and see which tweets generate the most referral traffic to your website.

Don’t Have Analytics?

Are you missing the analytics option after you log in to the dashboard? You’re not alone.

Others report not being able to see the analytics menu, but some have been able to get it by stepping through the advertising campaign setup but stopping before entering payment information.

Read the comments from others in this FPPad post and see if this technique works for you.

Another day, another rain storm in the Atlanta metro. Need some water? We have plenty!

While most of the country has baked under oppressive heat and humidity, Atlanta’s temperatures didn’t get above 90 degrees in all of 2013 until Wednesday this week! “Hotlanta?”

Summer is half over, so you have roughly six more weeks before the activity in your office picks up again as clients return from vacation. What have you accomplished so far for your technology goals of the year?

[I must admit, I am shocked by this research! Banks have an edge over companies like Mint and Personal Capital when it comes to likelihood to take action and trust? Ok, trust I can believe, since a “big” bank with brick and mortar assets has a tangible component to it, while online finance websites have nothing but a virtual storefront. But likelihood to take action? I would have guessed that Mint, Personal Capital, HelloWallet and others would certainly convert many more visitors to use their tools compared with the spartan tools of a big bank. I’m flat out wrong, according to this Change Sciences Group study.] Today leading web researchers Change Sciences Group (www.changesciences.com) released new research showing that banks may have an advantage over startups and software companies like Mint when it comes to providing financial tools which help consumers take control of their finances online.

[If you are copying and pasting charts from Yahoo! Finance into your client reports, I think you are making a mistake. Here’s an affordable alternative from YCharts that let’s you scan over 17,000 equities and sort by over 3,000 individual metrics to create the charts of your dreams. At $199/month (plus 20% off if you buy a full year), it’s significantly cheaper than the competition from Bloomberg.] When it comes to getting real-time or near-real-time stock or other equity data there are two ends of the spectrum.

[Financial institutions just don’t get it. Canned tweets don’t work. If you’re an adviser, I don’t think your audience really cares that much about random facts on Federal holidays. What I think they (your audience) DO care about is information that helps solve their problems or helps them learn something new they can actually use. And guess what? You can’t provide that level of value with prescreened, canned tweets from Hearsay Social, Socialware, Actiance, or anyone else providing scripted content.] Judging by his Facebook page, it would seem that Jeffrey E. Blum experienced a surge of patriotic inspiration around July 4. Mr. Blum, a financial adviser, posted no fewer than 12 updates with good wishes and trivia about the holiday.

[First there was Pinnacle Advisory Solutions, an outsourced investment management program and back office solution provider designed to lighten the management load of the average RIA firm. Now Securities America has partnered with Orion Advisor Services to launch Arbor Point Advisors, an SEC-registered corporate RIA with no allegiance to any one custodian. Much of the software available today allows RIAs to be custodian agnostic, but now advisors can also benefit from regulatory registration and compliance support that I assume will be provided in some fashion by Arbor Point Advisors.] Arbor Point Advisors LLC, a new SEC registered investment advisory firm, intends to fill the gap for advisors seeking the freedom of the independent advisory model and a choice of custodians without the need to form their own registered investment advisory firm.

And if you want to read the best material in financial planning knowledge and information over the weekend, click or tap the button below to head over to Michael Kitces’ Nerd’s Eye View blog and see the latest in Weekend Reading.

[Earlier this week I posted my interview with former-president-turned-chief-strategy-officer Mike Paulus of Addepar (see: Managing over $100 billion, Addepar’s Mike Paulus reveals how the company will cultivate RIA business). I had to add an explanation at the beginning of that video because of Paulus’ title change, and know we know why. Addepar now has a new CEO, and President and COO, who bring seasoned experience from Palantir (Addepar co-founder Joe Lonsdale’s more recognized venture) and the private equity industry.] Addepar, the leader in smart technology platforms for global wealth and investment management, today announced the appointment of Eric Poirier as Chief Executive Officer and Karen White as President and Chief Operating Officer.

[Practice management expert Mark Tibergien, Chief Executive Officer of Pershing Advisor Solutions, a BNY Mellon company, issues a stern warning that if your firm isn’t changing to adapt to service expectations of Gen X/Y, you’re in trouble. Tibergien is inspired by Cam Marston’s book Generational Insights and argues that the tactics used to satisfy baby boomers won’t work with the client of the future.] Something has been nagging at us about the way in which most advisory firms are oriented. The epiphany came when we realized our view was more about the advisor of the future than the client of the future.

[I don’t think columnist Dave Grant wrote the title of his article, because I don’t think he would have used the phrase “pays off.” Grant experimeted with advertising and promoting his Twitter accounts with $100 seed money, and experienced ho-hum traffic to his website. Remember, nearly anyone can access Twitter analytics for free (my screencast showing how is embedded below) and you can see your account with as little at $1 for some testing. You don’t have to start with $100.] As an avid Google Analytics user, and having previously explored Facebook ads, I thought I would see what effect “Promoted Tweets” would have on my website.

[Remember, you don’t have to tweet to get benefits from Twitter. Following these 15 “power Tweeters” recommended by Nerd’s Eye View publisher Michael Kitces will get you off to a fast start to get the most out of Twitter without the compliance headaches of posting your own tweets.] While there are many social media lists out there of people and businesses to follow on Twitter, InvestmentNews’ own Power 20 “Power Tweeter” Michael Kitces, partner and director of research for Pinnacle Advisory Group and publisher of The Kitces Report and the blog Nerd’s Eye View maintains a list of people financial advisers should follow on Twitter.

Twitter analytics is the next greatest thing in financial adviser social media ROI.

As a financial adviser, you read a ton of articles and hear from industry consultants (myself included!) how important social media can be to your business and how you should be using it to communicate with your audience.

But when you post something, how do you know if that message was actually effective in reaching people?

Introducing Twitter Analytics

Twitter, part of the top four social media sites (along with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+), just rolled out a new tool you can use to view your own analytics.

Twitter Analytics is free and can reveal nearly everything you ever wanted to know about the “reach,” or generated traffic, of your tweets.

Not only can you view analytics about your tweets, you can also gain insight on trends in your followers as well as demographics of the people who follow you.

Compliance

[Smarsh, the provider of email and social media archiving solutions, recently released its annual Electronic Communications Compliance Survey that has all sorts of nuggets around compliance. If you offer your contact information, you can download the report for free. Inside you’ll find insights like the gap between social media use and actually archiving messages and details on mobile device security (or lack thereof).] Smarsh, the leading provider of hosted archiving and compliance solutions for email and electronic communications, today released its third annual Electronic Communications Compliance Survey Report at FINRA’s 2013 Annual Conference. While challenges surrounding the oversight and retention of electronic communications remain widespread, this year’s study reveals that compliance professionals in financial services are more comfortable with the “new normal” of greater regulatory scrutiny, evolving communications tools and more complexity in the demands around email surveillance.

CRM

[Curious what Junxure Cloud looks like? Demos are now available through Junxure, with five live demo sessions offered through June. Click over to their announcement and the link to join the demo sessions is at the bottom of the announcement.] Just announced! This June, Junxure will begin offering a series of live demonstrations of Junxure Cloud™, its highly anticipated cloud-based CRM solution for financial advisors.

[You should know both Redtail and goalgamiPro well from past FPPad coverage (see Yes, you can create financial plans in eight minutes). Now the two companies have integrated their products, saving you time when logging in and passing data from Redtail to goalgamiPro.] The latest example, and one that might end up being a good fit for a large number of advisers, at least those that do financial planning, is the integration of goalgamiPro with the popular customer relationship management application from Redtail Technologies.

Social Media

[Here is a VERY comprehensive look at BloombergBlack, the latest attempt at a “robo-adviser” online advice platform. Bottom line: behind the mystery and mystique of a premium brand, BloombergBlack lacks the real power and potential of big data and proactive alerts of online platforms. Read the full review for all of the insight.] When I first shared the news with Josh Brown about BloombergBlack (behind the scenes) it created a much bigger stir than I ever anticipated, especially inside of the wealth management industry.

[If you are starting to get overwhelmed by the number of people you follow on Twitter, lists are an ideal way to organize people on a variety of filters. Lists allow you to sort the people you follow by whatever label or criteria you wish, saving you from the firehose of tweets found on your main timeline.] For active Twitter users, building lists is an easy way to organize friends, colleagues, brands and influencers online.

Practice Management

[This is the next wave in value-add resources that custodians are beginning to deliver to their advisers. I would expect similar offerings from the other major custodians if they don’t already do this today (I just can’t keep all of their value-add resources straight in my head!). But what is really offered at Pershing’s site? This is essentially an aggregated website of about 100 of Pershing’s research and white papers published to date. So if you are looking for tips on using your tablet or getting proactive follow up reminders from your CRM, you will need to look elsewhere (aka FPPad!).] Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, today unveiled its new Practice Management Center, a comprehensive resource that offers Pershing’s clients practice management-related content in one user-friendly, central location. In response to client demand, advisors will now have quick access to all of Pershing’s family of practice management materials, including more than 100 pieces of thought leadership, whitepapers, guidebooks and interactive tools on-demand.

[Shortcut: the apps are Penultimate, Evernote, and Nozbe. What are my three “life-changing” apps? 1. PlainText: I don’t write notes with a stylus. Handwritten notes aren’t searchable. So instead I type, and this freemium app syncs all my entries with my Dropbox account. 2. Dropbox: While it’s not the gold standard in cloud file storage (see: Dropbox for Financial Advisers: Is it Safe? Secure?), it’s one of the best integrated services out there, including support for my PlainText notes. 3. Workflowy: Like PlainText, this is a super simple app I use to organize lists and todos. Expand and contract lists at will to see the entire universe or just one specific topic. It, too, syncs with Dropbox for backup.] To increase this understanding and to communicate your insights effectively, you need get yourself, your information and your insights organized. Here are three great app’s to help you get your tech stuff together like never before.

General Technology

[This article scratches the surface of what is becoming a much more significant issue as so much of our financial lives move to online services. I even struggle with this issue personally, as I maintain all of the online accounts for our household, and my wife isn’t all too familiar with the “system” I use. As a planner, you clearly have an opportunity to help clients not only organize their online finances, but also ensure that access to online information is available for all those who need it.] Bob Gingberg, a retired production manager for an educational publisher, is worried that he does not know any of the logins and passwords for online accounts belonging to his partner or brother and they do not know his.

[Once again, it was quite a surprise to receive a phone call from Joyce Hanson of Investment Advisor magazine calling to inform me that I had been selected into the IA 25 list of influential people in the financial services industry. I am honored and humbled, and will continue to deliver as much premium information about technology in this industry to you, my loyal readers and subscribers!] Bill Winterberg, a certified financial planner with a bullish view on the future of technology in the advisor space, describes himself as squarely positioned in the Gen X/Gen Y demographic.

[After raising another $25 million, Personal Capital has attracted $52.3 million in funding to support a team of 70 employees managing a collective asset base just shy of $200 million across 700 clients. That’s roughly $285,000 for the average client. So with $52 million raised, I get a raw cost of client acquisition of $74,174, not including any spending derived from Personal Capital’s revenue earned to date. BUT, as Harris mentions, it may still be very early to evaluate the company’s growth soak critically, as this trend toward online advice platforms may have another 10 or 15 years ahead of it. Still, that is a long time to wait for any return on investment for many of the early investors.] When many people hear “wealth management,” they think of elite advisors meeting old money clients at the country club, or decades-old firms with big names such as Fidelity or Schwab. But in the years ahead, one Silicon Valley startup is aiming to shake up that establishment — and just has raised a nice chunk of new funding to help.

[So what’s Personal Capital going to do with its new $25 million? Open up an office in Denver, CO and hire 100 financial advisers.] Bill Harris, the former CEO of PayPal and Intuit, tells the Silicon Valley Business Journal he intends to establish a Denver office for his latest company and hire 100 financial advisers.

[Pershing gets another update this week due to their conference-related announcements. The company previewed changes coming to its NetX360 mobile apps designed to run on iOS, Windows, and Android platforms. Nope, no Blackberry app for the 30 of you who have visited FPPad since the beginning of 2013!] Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, is previewing its next generation mobile solution for investment professionals today at the INSITE™ 2013 conference in Hollywood, Florida. The new version features a fully redesigned, sleek user interface and a variety of features aimed at making advisors more efficient and productive in their everyday activities.

[Alright, I’ll stop at three updates related to Pershing, but despite its dry title, InvestmentNews tech reporter Davis Janowski does a good job describing some of the adviser-of-the-future technology on display at INSITE 2013. He highlights voice recognition inside NetX360 that can respond to a variety of report commands. Now controlling NetX360 by voice while driving is a bit of a stretch for me, but it at least gets the point home. But here’s my hangup; I have trouble using Siri to send texts to family while driving, what makes me think I’ll be successful at performing data queries in NetX360? So, there’s obviously wow factor here, but true utility? I’m on the fence. So can custodians start with truly paperless account application and approval processes first, for example, which will translate to actual efficiency gains in your office? Thanks.] Ram Nagappan, Pershing LLC’s chief information officer, is something of a visionary. Not only does he love technology for technology’s sake — he gets positively giddy showing off new things — he loves applying it to improve business processes.

[I talk about VPN services to help keep passwords and login credentials safe from prying hackers (see How to secure mobile devices against “WiFi honeypots”). But when your credentials pass through a VPN, how safe are they? This Lifehacker update gives some good rules of thumb when evaluating the security of your VPN provider.] You do have to trust that your VPN service provider has your best interests at heart, because you’re relying on them to secure your connection, keep everything encrypted, and to protect your activity from prying eyes.

[In case you missed it, Fidelity announced it has vetted cloud desktop provider External IT for its advisers, giving them a fast track solution to leave legacy servers behind and move critical resources to the cloud. Pricing is around $150/month/user, so while it may not save advisers tons of money, it will give them greater mobility in business and better backup and disaster recovery.] In a press release today, Fidelity announced it has selected External IT as the exclusive provider of a cloud-based virtual desktop solution to financial advisers.

[Don’t think Twitter moves the stock market? Think again. One rogue tweet from a hacked AP account sent the Dow plunging nearly 150 points in a matter of seconds. What’s your takeaway from all this? Vigorously guard your online credentials, because attackers will do everything they can to get them and then exploit them for financial gain.] The AP Twitter hack which sent the stock market briefly crashing was caused by a phishing attack, according to the AP. The news organization now says the attack on Twitter was “preceded by a phishing attempt on AP’s corporate network.”

[Social media archiving provider Erado continues to grow quickly. You’ve read here before about its relationships with firms like LPL, the largest independent broker dealer ranked by revenue as wel as account assets.] Erado, the nation’s leading compliance and archiving firm in electronic communication, announced today their record first quarter growth. Erado added new services for over 500 offices, and continued hiring due to its continued growth. The quarter was the strongest in the company’s history.